Since the beginning of known history, men and women have been creating visual images to stimulate emotional responses from others and from themselves. Endless hours of human endeavor have been devoted to attempts to create such images, wherein the value of the created images appears to be in direct relation to the intensity or complexity of the resulting emotional response. Accordingly, the value of an image may be different for different individuals, as each individual's emotional response may differ, being affected by his/her own personality, previous experiences, associations, etc. Accordingly, across time and cultures, men and women have passionately and relentlessly labored in attempts to find which images illicit which emotional responses from which people? Despite all the efforts and considerable advancement in this matter, this search is by no means over.
Experience has shown that a human's emotional response to an image is not only based on which objects or area are portrayed/appear in the image, but is also largely based on the arrangement, visual characteristics and interrelations of the objects portrayed/appearing in the image—largely referred to as the “composition” of the image. Thus, artists have continuously searched, defined, argued, re-defined, experimented, discovered, argued and otherwise developed rules, theories and methods for correctly composing images to illicit the best emotional response—otherwise known as art.
Once the camera was invented it was only natural that this search turn also to the captured image (photograph), as a desire to capture visually pleasing images quickly grew. The development of photography as an art form became inevitable. Whether for artistic purposes, or just for the everyday user of a camera, the study of the desired composition of images was now turned towards the captured image as well. Anyone who has ever used a camera can tell you, that one photograph may be a “good” photograph, whereas another photograph of the exact same scene, including the exact same objects is a “bad” photograph. The question then becomes, what makes a photograph a “good” photograph or a “bad” photograph? And what actions may be performed to improve the composition of a captured image (photograph)?
Unfortunately, the answers to these questions are as complex and elusive as the human psyche they seek to effect. It would therefore be desirable to find further methods to develop criteria and guidelines to appraise and improve the quality of the composition of images. Preferably, utilizing the advanced processing equipment available in modern times.
Seeking to improve the composition of the images they capture, many people study, practice, experiment and devote other efforts to this affect. The end result, however, despite the availability of many guides on the subject, often times, especially for the amateur photographer, is that the process of taking a picture, while exercising all the composition lessons he/she has learned, becomes a tedious and time consuming process of shifting, changing lighting, repositioning, recalculating and so on. On many occasions, the process is so long it is simply impractical to fully perform for each photo or requires extensive preparations. It would therefore also be desirable to provide a device capable of automatically assisting a user of an imaging device with improving the quality of the composition of photographs he/she captures. Such a device would be especially useful if it could be integrated into the imaging device and interactive with the imaging device's other components.